Cancelling the Apocalypse
by Lightning Streak
Summary: In an already-destroyed future, Valerie Gray and Dan Phantom must fight together to avoid total annihilation. Alien invasion AU.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: Don't own DP or the movie Pacific Rim. Although I sincerely wish I did. _

_Because every fandom needs a Pacific Rim AU experiment story. _

_While I hope that this story is independent enough to stand on its own, here is a summary of the movie Pacific Rim (2013): Aliens from another dimension try to take over Earth by using genetically-engineered monsters to wipe out the human race__. Countries worldwide retaliate with nuclear blasts to kill the monsters, but environmental toxicity __becomes a major concern. Governments then begin to design gigantic, manned robots that are large enough to fight off the monsters as they appear. These robots have two pilots, whose minds are connected together to properly drive and fight using the robot. _

_Cue the remix..._

* * *

**Cancelling the Apocalypse**

* * *

They adapted.

Whatever the creatures were, they destroyed everything in their path with their limbs and frothing maws the size of football fields. They survived every weapon the human race threw at them, short of nuclear bombs.

They broke down morals and pride and replaced it with a desperation for survival.

Such events were exactly why Dan Phantom landed in the heart of the Amity Park resistance building without even one blaster in his face. The ghost shield was down, and no one ran.

They were expecting him.

He crossed his arms. "You said you had a proposition for me," he said shortly, red eyes scanning the room for any tricks.

"Ah, Phantom. Yes." Vlad's voice shook only the slightest fraction. He sat in an old chair at the edge of a control mainframe, where the emergency alarm button was within reach. "How nice of you to come after all."

Dan glared at the older man, who looked ragged and worn. "Skip the small talk. Just tell me what I'm doing here."

"You already know why we've called for you." Vlad pushed forward a few pictures that people had managed to snap of the monsters. "Our new friends from the ocean."

The quick snapshots were taken from ground-level, the monsters within them seeming all the more giant from the perspective of a small human.

But the pictures did not immediately interest Dan Phantom. He'd already seen their hulking sizes, their glowing eyes and veins not entirely unlike that of a ghost's. Instead, something else far more worth his while caught his eye. From within the shadows of the connecting hallway, he saw a lithe shadow. "Oh, hello, Valerie," he greeted. His lips stretched a little too wide for comfort. He eyed the way her torso sharply curved into hips. Her long, ringlet hair was wet, as if she'd just bathed. "You look ravishing today."

"Shut up," she said, teal gaze hard. She had a weapon trained on him. "Listen to Vlad, and don't try anything funny."

"Afraid I'll stain the carpet? With his blood?"

"No, just afraid I'll have to kick in a couple of walls," she said, voice suddenly pleasant. "With your face."

Vlad paled, realizing that their verbal sparring was about to escalate into a physical fight. "Please, the both of you. We have a far greater matter to attend to."

Valerie narrowed her eyes and remained silent, but Dan bristled at the disguised command. He sneered at Vlad in recompense. "So, I didn't know you liked dinosaurs. Isn't that for people fifty years younger than you?"

The man frowned and ignored the jab. "These monsters are more than mindless dinosaurs. They're actively targeting the human and ghost races in ways that not even _you_ have. We're looking at an extinction-level event if we cannot stop them. And if the human world rips apart, the Ghost Zone will go down too."

"Because there's so much left to ruin here," Valerie muttered under her breath. Vlad gave her a hard stare, and she looked down.

Dan merely appeared bored. "And you begged for my presence to tell me this…why?"

"Why?" Vlad echoed in disbelief. "You mean you're not also concerned? Even a little?"

Dan actually thought about it for a second. "I suppose their presence is irritating, but I love what they've done with the place." He smiled, although it was a bit tired. "It's very much full of death and screaming."

"But you can't play chess without a chessboard. And pieces." Vlad's voice was desperate. "The world is running out of options. We all are. You should be very worried by now."

The ghost shrugged. "Just because the monsters are screwing with my original plans for the world doesn't mean I'm about to start a non-profit. I don't care how the world burns."

"I understand that you have a…lack of concern," Vlad said. The horrors from the past several years echoed in his clouding blue eyes. "But if you want true domination, you need a world to rule, people to have power over. These monsters are destroying everything. From what we understand about them, they will not stop until every last one of us, both ghost and human, is eradicated."

Dan was growing tired of Vlad's insinuations. He never seemed capable of just saying what was on his mind. "Why the sudden encouragement for world domination? Shouldn't you be trying to convince me otherwise?"

Silence swung between them for a bit. "War makes strange bedfellows," Vlad admitted. "I'm appealing to your reason."

"No, you're trying to manipulate me," Dan raised a brow, expression darkening. "That's not reasonable; that's very, very dangerous." His palms began to glow.

Valerie began to move forward.

Before Dan could respond with an angry display of power, Vlad continued. "We're asking for a truce," he said quickly, attempting to steer away the subject to something safer and more relevant. "You're the only one who has managed to single-handedly take down one of those things when they were a Category 2. We're now facing Category 4s. We need your help."

The anger in Phantom's face bled away at Vlad's honesty. His eyebrows raised. "My help?" A chuckle worked its way up his throat, along with a scoff. "You're asking for _my help_?"

He turned to Valerie. "I'm not sure which one of you I want to kill first now." He frowned. "If you think for one second that you can convince me to take on a Category 4 by myself in the name of _saving people_, you're insane."

He did not tell them that taking on the Category 2 had damaged him far more than he'd ever admit. He'd been arrogant. Reckless. He pointed out the window. "These creatures are intelligent and adaptable. I gain far more by letting them do the heavy lifting for me."

"And then what? Exist in intangible-mode for the rest of your afterlife?" Vlad scoffed. "Really, Daniel. Think this through. They're hunting everything. They'll hunt you too."

Dan remained silent. The powerful lines of his body were tense, but he did not move to grab Vlad's throat or shoot. Instead, his sharp features were trained on Vlad, as if studying him for deceit.

Vlad took this as a good sign. "I've spoken with Technus," he added. "If we can get our hands on some wreckage materials from surrounding cities, he may be able to build something for you to level the playing field."

Dan said dryly, "How specific. _Something._"

"It would be a robotic suit of sorts. Large enough to fight them. Something that could amplify your powers and give you the size and boost you'd need to fight them." Vlad sighed. "At least that's the idea."

Well now. Something about that was enticing, far more than existing alongside ugly alien dinosaurs. He vaguely recalled memories of a time he had used a battle suit to defeat Pariah Dark, and how good the power boost had felt. Dan's eyes narrowed at the too-good offer. "Providing the crack pot could actually deliver, you'd be trusting me with a lot of power," his lips curled up. "How unlike you."

"Which is exactly why I'd be with you," Valerie stepped in, holstering her weapon. "To keep you in line." She crossed her arms over her chest and eyed him. Her fear of him was minimal now in comparison to her hatred of him.

"You understand," Vlad said to Dan, voice cautious, "that if we moved forward with this, we would have to engineer precautions into the project for which only Valerie or one of us could activate Technus's invention. It's a perfectly valid compromise—our increased safety and your increased power."

"Ooh, so Valerie the Ghost Slayer would be my handler. How delightful." Dan's red eyes flickered. Then he smiled a horrible, awful smile. "And what if I don't agree to your terms? Or to the whole idea?" His head tilted like a dog's. "Would I not get my good citizen award for the day?"

Vlad sighed, rubbing his temples. "I cannot compromise on the safety precautions. But you know we do not have the means to force you into a truce, Daniel."

Dan's smile dropped suddenly at his name. "Don't call me that."

The older man winced. He stared at the ghost that had once been a smiling, sensitive boy. "Truly, does not even a _remnant _of the Daniel I once knew still exist? He would have agreed to this instantly."

"No." Dan's ruby eyes glinted with a fearful anger. At times, he could still recall his old memories, complete with emotions beyond that of hatred and malice, but he tried to ignore it. "He died a long time ago, as did his asinine heroic complex. I'm not about to martyr myself into a dog for anyone."

"Then consider the power you'll lose if you let the other side win. Consider how indebted the world would be to you if you saved it from extinction!" Vlad looked tired. "Despite our differences, it's in our best interest in join forces."

"We need an answer either way." Valerie was impatient. "We don't have time to waste. Another monster could be landing on the coast right now."

"And what would I gain from saying yes, besides a potential guarantee that I'll hold all the world domination shares at the end?" Dan scoffed at them.

Vlad intervened before Valerie could say something horrifically offensive. "I have extensive pull among human governments. We can negotiate political terms of your future rule," he said. "Imagine it. Every remaining government bowing before you as recompense for services rendered. You wouldn't have to dominate the world; they'd hand it to you on a silver platter."

Valerie's face twisted. "Stop giving him ideas. We don't need his help. We can get someone else. Like a _human being_ from an _actual _military, maybe?"

"We need someone with power to operate Technus's device." Vlad's voice was rough with regret. "The only other person remotely as powerful as Daniel is Clockwork, and he has refused to help us."

"Of course he refused," Valerie said. "He always refuses. He babbles shit no one understands, and then he says to figure life out on your own. There's still gotta be someone else we can ask. Anyone but Phantom."

"Oh?" Vlad rose to the challenge, irritation deepening the wrinkles about his eyes. "And who do you suggest?"

As the two humans bickered back and forth, Dan Phantom remained silent. He ran a hand through the white flames of his hair, which flickered about his fingers and cast white rays of light about the room.

Then he decided. "I suppose if I want a world to rule tomorrow," he said, voice raising above theirs, "then I have no choice today." His smile came back with a maniac force. "I'll do it. If nothing else, a compromise will provide me with amusing insight into your pathetic little resistance."

Vlad blinked in shock. "So you…actually agree to a truce?"

Valerie frowned, trying to ignore the dread in the bottom of her stomach. A part of her had hoped he would refuse. "This is only temporary, of course," she said, eyeing Vlad. "Don't think _our_ fight's over."

"And how do I know," Phantom asked, "that you won't try to destroy me the moment we win against our new dinosaur buddies?"

The human woman raised a brow and shot back, "How do I know that _you_ won't kill _me_?"

The two stared each other down, the tension between them nearly sparking into fire.

Vlad smiled weakly. "Uh, let's worry about that _after_ we stop the monsters, shall we?"

* * *

Within a month, Technus had nearly perfected his design. He and several hundred ghosts had crept throughout the lands, dragging back metal sheets, scraps to be melted down, nuclear reactors from power plants. But the already-crippled world stumbled under the burden of the monsters rising from the ocean. People ran inland for cover. The few remaining countries pooled their resources into holding off what some now called the Kaiju.

By the time Technus's mysterious battle suit was created, nearly 500 miles inland had been permanently destroyed by nuclear bombs and toxic blood from the monsters—to a point where not even ghosts dared to tread. Shortwave radio hosts struggled to provide accurate body counts and reports of the attacks from around the Pacific.

The days where they had only Phantom to worry about were seeming less painful.

"In other news," the radio host said, voice crackling through the uneven signal, "we have not endured any recent terrorism from the infamous Dan Phantom. Some scientists suggest that even _he_ is in hiding from these terrible beasts. Poetic justice, we would say, but it looks like we're screwed no matter what, ladies and gentlemen."

* * *

Dan Phantom, as most people knew, had tried to take a Kaiju down only once.

The fight began easily enough, but the creature adapted to Phantom's tactics, watching with those too-aware, glowing eyes. It swayed in time with Phantom's short bursts of speed and dodges. It held back on its haunches and snapped lightly while the ghost laughed.

From there, it had taken only a fair bit of overconfidence on Phantom's part for the monster to get in a good hit that left the ghost bleeding with near-fatal gashes.

Phantom eventually succeeded in killing the Kaiju with several Ghostly Wails, but all of the monsters now came through the breach with an ability to replicate his power. The day he saw another Category 2 unleash a Wail against a battered San Francisco, he'd stopped in awe and shock. True fear had overwhelmed him.

The universe was a far greater and more dangerous place than he had ever believed. Intelligent beings, more powerful than him, were watching his every move and studying his strategy.

It seemed that even the dreaded Phantom could only watch his world burn by another's hand.

* * *

"I, Technus! Master of all Technology and Electrical Devices, present to you my finest creation: the _Guardian Omega_!"

Valerie and Dan stood side by side, craning their necks high to even see the torso of the metal beast before them. Its black metal with red designs shone dark in the night sky, starlight slipping off its razor-blade hands like water droplets.

For a second, even Dan Phantom was speechless at the sight.

Technus proudly gave them a summary of the robot. "Sixty engines per muscle strand. Three-thousand tons of metal plating and armor. Seven nuclear generators with ectoplasmic amplifiers to naturally hook up to Phantom's power core."

"Jesus," Valerie breathed, squinting. It stood taller than some skyscrapers. "You know, I imagined something like a robot and all—maybe a spin-off of the old Fenton battle suit—but this? Where do we even fight from?"

"From the head," the old inventor said. "I, Technus! Created this with advanced technology that connects all the pieces together through synapse systems. You have to be in the brain to control it."

Valerie narrowed her eyes. "So, how exactly do we use this…together? Do you press buttons or push levers or what?"

"You drive, I shoot," Dan said, crossing his arms. He floated up to investigate the intricate detailing along the robot's limbs. "Can't be that hard."

"What do you mean,_ I_ drive?" She called up to him, offended. Maybe she'd be tagging along, but she expected more control than that. "I'm pretty sure that's your job!"

Vlad watched the two bicker and turned to Technus. "Please tell me you know how to make them play nice." He suddenly had horrible images of the robot destroying itself, with its razor-blade fingers diving deep into its own head by command of its homicidal pilots.

Technus smiled, red eyes glinting. "It's far too messy to have divided minds in one body, you're right. But I have engineered this robot with a special device that will create the perfect integration between man and machine!" He whispered, "You know, what I was speaking with you about before." It was horribly difficult for Technus to whisper. "_Drift_ technology."

Vlad added hopefully, "Which will allow us a certain level of…access to Daniel's actions and behaviors, yes?"

"It'll allow Valerie access, mostly," Technus said. Something in his face looked feral and calculating despite his excitement. "But I believe she will be able to keep Phantom in line quite nicely. The electrical fields of her mind are far more stable than Phantom's."

Vlad stared at the two as they scoped out their newest piece of weaponry in silence. "I do hope so. We cannot afford failure."

* * *

Dan and Valerie stood within the main platform of the robot, staring at each other. Technus had designed battle suits capable of absorbing incredible amounts of electricity and radiation. The uniforms were black with a few red accents, plated armor functioning as a second layer.

"What is this," Dan said with a frown, "a family Christmas picture?"

Valerie felt herself shudder at the realization that she matched her enemy. That she was going to fight alongside him. That this was all really happening. "Yeah, you look like shit too," she said, turning away. But she felt his gaze burn upon her, right where the slim fit of the battle suit outlined her curves. "And keep your eyes to yourself," she snapped, turning around. "Or I'll punch them out."

A tell-tale smirk twitched his lips. "Let's face it, that's not the tightest suit you've ever worn. Remember when you were growing out of that first one, and the buttons on the front popped—"

"Don't!" she said, voice high with anger. Her face flushed something crimson. "Don't you dare say another word."

"It was a good reason to switch to zippers." The ghost's sharp features twisted in a heartless laugh. "For your sake, anyways."

Before Valerie could respond and drop-kick Dan in the face right there (truce be damned), Vlad's smooth face cut in.

"_We're running out of time to dawdle. Get into positions and await my signal. We're on-lining the robot in sixty seconds_ _for a functionality check_."

Outside the giant robot, various humans and ghosts alike had appeared from the rubble towns around them to watch the tall structure come to life. It stood like a knight before them, with powerful lines and a black, expressionless visor. Some had heard rumors that the resistance had negotiated with Phantom for his cooperation with the Red Hunter.

No one was sure yet how they felt about that—not even Dan and Valerie themselves.

From within the robot, Valerie and Dan glanced at each other out of the corner of their eyes. Dan had taken the left side, Valerie the right. The various harnesses and neural connectors swept over them with the flip of switches. Neither said much beyond Valerie's occasional grumbles about metal death traps.

Then Technus threw the switch. _Guardian Omega_ revved up, nuclear reactors whining with a multi-tiered hum. Various holographic displays swept before them, running diagnostics.

"Guardian Omega online," a neutral voice said, "Systems running at 100 percent. Ectoplasmic energy fields aligning to identified ghost core. Awaiting neural bridge upload to system."

The harnesses locked in, and Valerie flinched at their click of finality.

"_I, Technus, will now engage the neural bridge_." His grating voice poured through the comm of their headsets. "_Stand by for integration."_

Dan stared down at himself, stuck within pounds of encasing metal that teemed with artificial life. He could feel it access his core until the harnesses holding him and Valerie in began to glow green. While he could easily phase out, it bothered him nevertheless. "Well, just get it over with." He bared his teeth. "This whole saving the world thing is throwing off my schedule for world domination."

"And I'm missing my hair appointment," Valerie mocked him. "So sad."

"Lemme guess, you were going to chop it all off?"

"You bet. Would've made my life a lot easier getting this damn helmet on." She fidgeted a bit under the glowing harness in an attempt to adjust straps. She eyed the ghost-infused technology with a distinctive mistrust.

An almost smile twitched Phantom's lips as he watched her, but he did not say anything for a moment. He was too tense, every line in his body tight with moody agitation. This all meant too much. This all meant that he had to be the hero again, if only for a bit.

He hid his worry with a sniff of indifference. "For the record, I'm not doing this for you. Or anyone."

"And I'm sure as hell not doing this for you." She glared right back at him. "The minute those monsters are dead, the truce is off. I'll destroy you once and for all."

Dan raised his brow. "Like you've been saying the last ten years? I look forward to watching you even_ try_ to—"

"—Neural bridge activated," the robot interrupted.

And suddenly, the world twisted in an explosion of sound and thought.

Everything that was Dan Phantom's mind collided with everything that was Valerie Gray's.

* * *

_**A/N:**__ This was entirely experimental, as I've never done a concept crossover like this before. But I really enjoyed Pacific Rim when I saw it. Then Phantom and Valerie came to mind because they're both bamf fighters and really apocalyptic themselves. Hope you enjoyed my spin on the Pacific Rim concept! I may continue this if people are interested. _

_Thanks for reading, _

_Lightning Streak_

**_Please review and let me know if I should continue! _**


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: Don't own DP or Pacific Rim. Cover image from HDWallpapersbank, a free download, and modified in Photoshop. _

_So I had enough people say that they wanted this continued. Here it is! Hope you enjoy. I included a short overview of the Pacific Rim plot in chapter one if you need it, but my hope is that this story feels independent and different enough to stand on its own._

* * *

**Cancelling the Apocalypse**

**Chapter 2**

* * *

Valerie cried out in the sudden overload of an entire mind joining hers to fill the synaptic spaces of the robot. Reality warped. Her heart stalled as she tensed up in the harnesses, hands desperately pulling at wires to get out. Darkness and pain overwhelmed her.

.

_ Danny stared at the mushroom cloud that stormed over his head, the explosion replaying in his mind. "No," he moaned. "No, no, no." He pulled himself off the hard gravel with shaking hands. Tears burned his eyes. "No!" _

_ Failure failure failure. A scream of agony tore from his lips as he reached out. _

.

She fell deep into the memory and lost herself, unable to separate from Danny. Valerie's hand raised in time with her accessed memory, eyes watering. "No!" she cried out in time with Danny, feeling her own body throb in fear and pain at the sight of the explosion. Her friends, her family, all gone—

The holographic interface surrounding her limbs activated. The robot's large, right hand raised with a shudder, then with a smooth, hydraulic movement in time with Valerie's actions. Its palm and razor fingers spread, glowing a neon green. Spectators below stared in awe. "Guardian Omega weapons system online," the robot confirmed within the conn. "Plasma cannon engaged."

People began to back away. "Uh, that's not good," Technus said from the control center, flying over to unplug the basic power lines.

"What's going on?" Vlad's worried voice carried over the murmuring conversations. He pushed the button for the comm. "Valerie, report! Stop this right now!"

Back on the ground, both Vlad and Technus tensed up as the plasma cannon began to glow hotter, the robotic hand aimed for a far-distant town.

"They're accessing each other's memory banks," Technus explained quickly in fear. "I didn't know the Drift technology would go so deep. It was designed to link up only their motor functions and nervous systems!"

"Then fix it!" Vlad seethed. "Before they destroy themselves!"

Back within the robot, only a part of Valerie registered reality. She sobbed in fear and shock, unable breathe under the weight of Phantom's memories. Daniel. He was Danny. And he was so good and tried so hard only to lose it all and Sam and Tucker were dead along with his family and he just wanted it all to end end end—

"Stop!" she squeezed her eyes shut, breathing hard. She tried to push back on the oppressive weight of the sorrow and terror. She lowered her arm, and the robot did as well. "Stop!"

She crawled her way up into a grayness, in which she could feel Dan's mind but not necessarily access it so deep. His power core nearly blinded her mind's eye. Then she realized in fear that the neural link went both ways. The presence that was Dan Phantom had fallen deep into her own mind. She could feel him the same way she could feel her own heartbeat.

"Oh my God," she breathed, opening her eyes.

On the other side of the harness, Dan stared off in the distance in a strange, tense trance. He'd accessed Valerie's memories of her early childhood. He could feel Valerie's emotions, her fear, her pain.

.

_"We're going to be alright," Damien Gray told her. He tried to smile, but it was watery. "Your mother would want us to be happy." _

_ "But Daddy, where is she?" she tugged on her father's pant leg. Her own eyes were bright with tears. "Where did she go?" _

_ The father hesitated. "Heaven, baby girl. Mommy's in heaven." _

_ Valerie felt her heart drop. "Oh." Her tears slid from her eyes. "Does that mean she's not coming back? Does she not love us anymore?" _

_._

He had not felt such a level of emotion in nearly a decade. It left him gasping as he held onto the harnesses with tight hands. He could feel it all, the sense of loneliness that had encased Valerie for years, the awkward jealousy she felt for normal families, the desperate attempt to find identity, the emptiness that could not be filled. Tears brightened his eyes despite how hard he tried to rip himself away. For the first time, the independent part of his mind felt total fear.

They'd only told him that a neural link would connect them to the robot—not to each other's every whim and thought.

He instinctively tried to create a barrier around himself, but something else happened.

"Shield activated," said the robot. The harnesses glowed, and a solid wall quickly stormed down the entire length of the robot, wrapping it in a protective barrier that hummed in a roar.

The surrounding crowds backed away a little further.

"Shut it down!" Vlad cried to Technus, his voice echoing. "Shut it down now!"

Technus huffed as he desperately pulled at cables. "I'm trying! But their connection is strong." His thin arms shook as he tried to pull the cables.

"Damage report. What's the worst that can happen, right now?" Vlad demanded, eyeing the robot suspiciously.

"Valerie just has to finish stabilizing," Technus said, avoiding the question. "She's got more logical synapse patterns. If she can stabilize, then Dan will be able to latch onto that and crawl out too."

"Yes, but this is…" Vlad cut himself off. "If they activate any major weapons around a civilian population…"

"Try and talk them down, then!" Technus waved at him, flustered. "You just can't rush technology calibrations. We knew it would be a rough ride at first."

Vlad grabbed the comm again without question. "Guardian Omega," he called through the comm. "Focus only on physical movement. Just let the thoughts drift, or they'll consume you, do you understand!"

Valerie was the first to answer. Her voice was hoarse. "I copy," she said. "I'm t-trying to…" she bit down a sob. "To stop it. I c-can't."

Vlad narrowed his eyes. Valerie was strong enough to do this. "Try harder," he told her. "Phantom, I'm talking to you too. Can you copy?"

From within the robot, Phantom remained silent. His red eyes were distant, seeing nothing before him but the sight of a funeral plot and the single rose that Valerie had rested on her mother's casket. He was unable to separate himself from Valerie, and suddenly he was reliving the death of his mother. He held onto the harnesses for dear life, maintaining the strong barrier around the robot in some physical attempt to protect himself from the onslaught of emotion.

He tried to pull away, to claw himself out of the stifling sense of loneliness that was Valerie's mind.

The robot trembled strangely.

Vlad turned to Technus and said, "We need to shut this down. It's too much for them." He waved his hands at the surrounding crowd in irritation. "Get back! Get out of here; it's too dangerous!"

The crowd watched their new iron giant fail, and they fled in a panic. The skyscraper-tall robot fell to its hands and knees under the divided mindset of its pilots, engines whirling in useless revolutions. Its hands crashed through a building, its knees cratering deep into the earth.

_Bam!_ The impact jarred Dan and Valerie back to full reality as they jerked in their shock harnesses, feeling the brunt of the impact. The earth rumbled like thunder beneath the robot's weight.

On the ground, Technus and Vlad finally managed to unplug the power system. "Got it!" Technus said, breathing hard, holding the cables with shaking fingers.

Then from within the conn came the robotic voice, "Guardian Omega powering down. Weapons deactivated. Neural bridge disconnecting."

And suddenly Dan and Valerie were back within their own minds, horribly silent, leaning heavily on the harnesses that strapped them in. The whirling engines whined down by decibels. The harnesses dampened their glow, and the holographic interface around them died. They realized that the robot was on its hands and knees, and that they were hanging at a strange, unbalancing angle. From the facial visor of the robot, they saw only the ground and a few scattered buildings.

"What," Dan breathed in, recognizing the tears on his face for the first time, "the _hell_ was that?" He quickly moved to brush his unbidden tears away, in fear or embarrassment, he did not know. His mind felt torn and displaced—more so than usual.

He glanced over at Valerie. She stared back at him with a deep knowledge, tear tracks on her dark face. Then, suddenly, he knew that she knew. He knew that look of horror.

With incredible hesitance, she whispered, "…_Danny_?"

She stared at his flushed, blue skin and raw red eyes, which were uncharacteristically disturbed by emotion. The contours of his face were more angular and mature than the Danny she knew, the body far more built. But she saw it, for the first time. She saw Fenton within the Phantom.

He swallowed hard.

"You're Danny," she said softly. She did not dare to say his last name, for fear that someone would overhear. "Oh my God."

In an attempt to hide his conflicting emotions, he sneered at the name. It would do him no good to lie. "Several years ago, maybe I was."

"_Guardian Omega, can you hear me_?" Vlad's voice was distant, uneven. "_We're trying to unlock you from the safety system so you can get out. Hold tight._"

Valerie was not paying attention. "I saw it," she said to Dan, eyes haunted. "What you did."

.

_He realized that he was not himself. No, no—Daniel Fenton was collapsed on the floor nearby, desperately attempting to right himself. _

_ Phantom stared at his human counterpart and cocked his head in confusion. __**Kill it kill it kill it**__, a secondary voice pounded in him, sweeping up his arms, overwhelming his sense. It sounded like Vlad. __**It's so weak. It made you feel pain. It enslaved you. **_

_ His fragmented mind panicked. Pain? Enslaved? _

_ Vlad's voice pulled at him. __**Kill it before it kills us!**_

_ But—_

_**Do it!**_

_ The command overwhelmed him. He lashed out. _

.

"You didn't see anything," Dan said quickly, eyes guarded.

Valerie saw through his exterior, now that she knew the constant pain that lay beneath the mask. "No, I did," she said, eyes widening. "You're like, possessed or something…" Her face twisted. "By Vlad?"

He bared his teeth, "I am in control!" he snarled. "I'm _always_ in control, never him!"

The remnant of power within him that he had subdued pulled at him with a subtle laugh. _Of course you are, Daniel. Of course. _

"Shut up!" he shouted, grimacing. He looked distracted, as if he were not even speaking to Valerie. Something pained crossed his face. "Shut up!"

Valerie gave him a strange, concerned look.

He looked up at Valerie and tried to hide his horror with a glare. "Don't say anything," he demanded. "Don't tell anyone." For a second, some facet of his split personality cracked through. He looked half-feral, half-terrified. He tried to phase out of the harnesses, only to realize that his power core was still tied to the powering-down robot. Panic set in. "And get me out of this damn thing!"

Valerie realized in that moment what Dan really was—helpless to his own split personality. The original Danny Phantom could not circumvent the impulses of Vlad's ghost, which had been born from hatred, want, and jealousy.

"He killed you," she whispered. "It was Vlad! His ghost side—!"

Phantom's wide eyes glowed a deep red. "—Don't. Don't you dare finish that sentence. It was all me. _Only_ me. And that's all you need to know."

Valerie gave him a hard stare. "Is it?" His threatening words were strangely empty in compared to his face, upon which tear tracks still shined. "You can't fool me, Phantom. Or Danny. Whoever you are."

He closed his eyes and forced himself to relax in the harness, trying to center himself before Vlad and Technus arrived. It would not do to be on the verge of a breakdown in front of them. World domination was going to be a lot harder than he ever imagined if he had to put up with this.

He tried to evade her. "You can't fool me either." He took inventory of his newly-expanded mind, complete with accessed visions of Valerie's own past. "I saw everything. How much you fear me. How you intend to stop me." He smirked through his quickly-drying tears. He was beginning to feel more like himself again. "How many times you've stared at my ass."

Valerie's mouth dropped open, and her eyes darkened. "…What?"

"Not gonna lie," he said, "it _does _look pretty good. Especially when you're looking up at it all the time."

Her complexion paled in some kind of horror. "I was just tracking you with weapons! How could you possibly think—?!"

"—Oh, I felt the hesitation, Val. I felt it."

Then the support harnesses around them suddenly unlocked, and Valerie and Dan went sprawling, slamming into the hard visor front of the robot's face and crashing into each other in a flail of limbs and armor.

It was too fast for the disoriented Dan to phase out. He landed hard on top of Valerie, which knocked the breath out of her lungs in a surprised wheeze.

For a second, they could only freeze in shock, their faces inches away from each other.

Then Valerie moved. "Holy—" she coughed, eyes wide with lack of oxygen. She weakly tried to push at him. "Get off of me!"

Dan blinked, then grimaced. "I'm trying," he said with a huff as he lifted himself off of her. The armored plates of their battle suits were magnetized to lock into the harnesses, and his arm had accidentally magnetized to Valerie's waist. One of his legs had magnetized to hers. "I'm stuck."

Valerie's lips curled in disgust as she felt his hand move beneath her thigh. "Get off!" she pushed him again, this time harder. "Phase out, do something!"

He glared at her in irritation at first, then reconsidered. "I suppose I could," he said, tilting his head, lips raising lopsidedly. "But now that I know how much you hate this, I kinda want to stay right here."

She snarled at him, teal eyes on fire, "You better get off!" And she began to struggle beneath him, moving her leg to unlock his. She managed to only drag him along, to which he laughed.

"What, you mean you don't like play time with _Danny_?" he mocked.

"Danny's dead," she snapped, face twisting in a flux of emotion.

His features began to fade out into thin air as he turned intangible. "But does this mean we'll play nicer now that you know what I am?"

Suddenly, Technus materialized into the conn, along with Vlad.

Their eyes scanned the vast conn and saw the open, metal harnesses hanging from above. Then the two of them saw the still-collapsed Valerie down on the robot's clear black visor. She was staring in shock and disgust at the empty air around her.

Vlad called out in concern, "Valerie, are you alright? Where's Phantom?"

Valerie did not answer for a time. Then she said slowly as she sat up, "I think he phased out." Her voice was strangled. She struggled to her feet, wiping dust off of her battle suit. "He's such a…" Words failed her. With everything she now knew, she found herself staring in distrust at Vlad too. She looked at him in fear and worry.

Vlad simply rubbed his temples, unaware. "Of course he'd run off. We could only have hours before the next attack, and he runs off." His hands slipped from his face. "We need to track him down now so we can get this thing calibrated correctly." He glanced her over in concern. "Are you capable of finding him?"

The woman raised a brow. "I'm always capable of hunting Phantom," she said indignantly. She'd save her questions for him later. "Just give me five minutes."

* * *

And from atop the ledge of the kneeling robot's streamlined shoulder blade plates, Phantom sat, pulling off his helmet and shaking his fire hair loose from its constricting ponytail. He could see miles in the distance from such a height, far beyond the meager borders of Amity Park and the wastelands surrounding it.

"Oh, Valerie," he mused to the air with a smirk that did not quite reach his eyes. "You and I are going to have fun together, aren't we?"

* * *

**A/N**: _Pacific Rim occasionally derails from its apocalyptic focus onto somewhat-amusing relationships between pilots, which is what happened here. I can't decide if I actually want to ship serious DarkGray in this story or not. Let me know your thoughts on this! :)_

_Thanks for reading, _

_Lightning Streak_

_**Please Review! I love constructive criticism and ideas. **_


	3. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer: Don't own DP or Pacific Rim. _

_Thank you to Invader Johnny, Mals42, AmethystFlare3, SerenaPotterSailorMoon, Yasz1221, ectoly, JoojooBrother, Domination of the world, The Bloodless, and Rekiseria for reading and reviewing last time! _

_Oh, wow. I can't believe I let so many months go by since I'd last updated this story. Sorry about that! In good news, I finally created a cover image! Yay for drawing, haha._

* * *

**Cancelling the Apocalypse**

**Chapter 3**

* * *

Nails clicked on a plasma metal throne. "_These humans are quite resilient_," the being said. Its feminine voice resounded in the hive mind of the entire council. "_They have allied themselves with the beings of ectoplasmic origin, and our reconnaissance teams indicate the humans will launch a counterattack soon_."

One of the Masters leaned forward. "_With what?"_ he demanded. "_Those flying boxes they dare to call airships? Our sentries swat them out of the sky like bugs_."

The feminine being's voice was smooth and lyrical, its edges sharp. "_And yet the humans and the ectoplasmic ones still exist_." She waved her three-fingered hand to the vast canyons at the feet of their command center. Below them roamed vast, dangerous beasts that awaited orders to deploy to Earth. Pawns. Chess pieces. "_We must respond in kind. Our clones with the ectoplasmic strain—let us use those from here on. And we must increase our frequency of attacks to ensure extermination_. _This is the first time we have failed to annihilate native life within our projected timetable. For our own race to survive, we must ready Earth for our presence by the end of this solar cycle_. _It is…the only planet within our reach."_

* * *

For quite a while, Dan and Valerie struggled to separate themselves from each other. Not physically, of course: Valerie was adamant in her attempt to remain as far away from Dan as possible, especially with their magnetizing suits that could potentially lock together again. But mentally, they could not pull away from having shared a connected mind.

Upon growing irritated, Dan would reach down to his waist to grab a blaster from his belt, only to realize that he wore no belt. He had no blaster. That was a very Valerie thing to do.

He panicked, hiding his hands behind his back. He tried to think of world domination and death to hide the strange invasion of yet another personality altering his mind. "I'm in control," he whispered under his breath, almost fearfully. "I'm in control."

Valerie suffered similar side effects from the neural connection. Her lip curled the same way Dan's did upon receiving bad news, and she huffed in a way that was distinctly a Dan thing to do. Then she realized that she thought she _was_ Dan for a second, and she panicked.

A _drift hangover_, Technus called it in jest. Their minds had connected so strongly, the alpha and beta waves of their minds jived together even without the aid of the technology. The effect would, as Technus promised, wear off given a little time for their minds to recalibrate to singularity.

Vlad had tentatively given them the night off upon realizing the full effects of the drift technology. And the two avoided each other for the rest of the evening—Valerie running back to her own quarters, Phantom flying out to sit upon the edge of a skyscraper. Their battle suit, Guardian Omega, remained at the spot where they'd crashed it.

But everyone knew it was only a matter of time before they'd have to try again.

* * *

By the time that Valerie had managed to reach her own sleeping quarters, she was pacing, holding her head in her hands. "Oh my God," she breathed shakily. "Get it together, Gray." Her mind still swarmed with images from the chaotic mess that was Dan Phantom's brain. Her own heartbeat twisted in reaction to the soul-wrenching pain that had thrummed from his every synapse.

She was still trying to forget. "It's not real," she tried to convince herself, wiping her eyes with a frustrated hand. "Just a trick."

She had felt the dark presence that caged Phantom within himself and had driven him to madness. She tried not to think about it, or to think about the fact that said dark presence was in fact a part of Vlad Masters—her mentor, her second father-figure.

But then she'd think about how Dan was the remains of one Daniel Fenton…

If she stood in complete silence, she could still feel herself reaching out a desperate hand to stop an inevitable explosion, and she could feel the screams of agony that had ripped through Danny's throat. And she would come close to crying all over again, because she had felt the smallest spark of his presence drowning in that darkness.

* * *

Dan leaned back on the roof of an abandoned skyscraper, his mind still unsettled from his drift hangover. He tried to tell himself that he felt nothing, that he was truly unaffected, but even the lie irritated him.

He groaned, rubbing his temples. His hair flickered about his fingers, tangling. "What the hell," he breathed. His heart—he didn't even have one, did he?—felt heavy in his chest. Valerie's mind had been sharp and painful, like the open maw of a shark mouth. Her memories had ripped through his before she'd managed to let go and gain control. It made him feel naked and raw with emotion.

And somewhere, he knew that Vlad Plasmius was laughing at him.

He rolled on his stomach, trying to hide his face in his elbow. He muttered, disheartened, "Shut up, Vlad."

The consciousness that was Vlad Plasmius was not entirely sentient by itself. But Dan always felt that presence at the back of his mind, buried deep like a festering wound. Maybe it was really just himself. Maybe he just gave it words and pretended it was separate from him.

Or maybe it really was Vlad—he couldn't tell.

_ You are so very weak, Daniel. As always. _

"Go away," he groaned louder. He almost didn't even care if anyone saw him talking to himself. "Just leave me alone." And so the darkness did, and he was left in the dark of his raging thoughts.

For some reason, Valerie's unintended intrusion into his mind unsettled him far more than he could have expected. It was a damn good thing he had several points of blackmail he could hang over her, should she ever speak of his past.

The question was how to survive connecting their minds again without being…further corrupted by Valerie. Which he worried might be impossible.

* * *

Vlad sunk down into his chair, holding his head in his hands. "What a disaster," he moaned. "A weapon of mass destruction, and we can't even use it. You told me it would only link up their motor functions!"

"Well, I did say there could be side effects," Technus responded. He still looked a bit frazzled from the chaos his invention had created. "It would be impossible to link up only certain portions of their brain. I ran the data, and the neural load would overwhelm them both if anything less than two whole minds try to control several tons of technical and mechanical processes."

"So you mean that it's hopeless."

"It's not that bad," Technus said. "I, Technus! Created that weapon to your specifications. You said you wouldn't let Phantom fight without a handler, and with the size of that robot, he cannot. But I can perhaps create a simulation program that uses the Drift Technology. They could learn to fight together through the simulation, then apply those skills in reality."

Vlad rubbed his chin. "That… might work, if they can learn fast enough." He looked up. "When can you create a training program?"

"I just built the greatest weapon known to mankind, and you ask me if I can code a program?" The ghost huffed. "I'll have it done by tomorrow morning."

"Good," Vlad said, slightly irritated at Technus's arrogance. "Then do so. In the meantime, I will prepare some more materials for them to study regarding our…alien friends. If we are going to actively engage these beings in war, then it is imperative that we understand everything we are getting ourselves into."

The ghost, however, was no longer listening. He grabbed onto his numerous schematics, muttering numbers under his breath in a frenzied madness. He was already perfecting his training program and calculating the resources needed.

Vlad watched Technus fly away with a despondent, wry amusement.

Truly, their plan was tentative, with far too many holes still gaping before them. Vlad knew he would have to align Valerie and Dan together under one banner—preferably under the banner of saving the world instead of destroying each other. And if they managed to unite in any way, it still left the gap of actually defeating an alien race with great power. And then if they managed that, it would leave them with the unsettling future of governments submitting to Dan Phantom's rule, per their deal.

Vlad's mind was racing, calculating different chess moves and their outcome. The human race's best chance at survival would be the quick dispatch of Dan Phantom upon him and Valerie defeating the invaders, and it made his heart pull a bit to consider killing Dan once and for all—to manipulate him with the promise of rulership, only to dishonor their truce and stab him in the back. It was a dirty and wicked game that reminded Vlad that perhaps he had never lost his vices despite the loss of his powers.

He tapped his fingers on the desk in a disjointed rhythm. Truly, there was very little redemptive about Dan, which meant that his guilt over contemplating Dan's future death was ridiculous. The boy needed to fade out. Death would be sweet for him, for it would unleash his soul from its unnatural existence.

But Dan could not fade out just yet. He was a necessary evil. The king chess piece for this war.

As Vlad lost himself in his thoughts, he failed to recognize that his queen chess piece—one Valerie Gray—had returned from the depths of her personal quarters. The black woman smiled sweetly as she walked up to him. Tears were still streaked down her face, and her teal eyes were bloodshot. "Hi, Vlad."

He blinked in surprise, and he stood from his desk. "Ah, Valerie, just the person I—"

Valerie punched him straight in the face, her knuckles crunching soundly against his cheek. He grunted in pain, nearly stumbling from the blow.

His hands flew up to his face as he groaned. "Agh—what the—?"

She slammed him against the wall and eyed him. "I know what you did," she hissed. "What you_ were_ that made Phantom go insane. And what's still in him that's making him stay that way."

Vlad's eyes widened in shock. He had not considered the possibility that she would gain such knowledge from her drift experience. "Valerie, I—"

"—No, save it. I knew something was wrong with you." She narrowed her eyes at him, looking very much like predator stalking prey. "I just didn't know what it was." Then she shoved the older man away, and he stumbled back, slightly terrified of Valerie's prowess. She would be even more terrifying if her face were not torn with pain. "He was my friend, Vlad. My friend. And you _ruined_ him! You ruined everything!" Utter betrayal streaked tears down her cheeks. "All that time—he'd just been trying to help me. And then you—you…"

She could still remember the darkness that had suffocated her in the Drift. The spark of Danny that had drowned under the pain of total loss and despair.

Vlad held his jaw, his whole body stiff with pain. His voice was rough. "If you know my past," he said, "then you must also know that I did it to help him cope."

Valerie's breath hitched. "By ripping him in two and possessing his brain? Yeah, that's smart, Vlad. Real smart." Perhaps the drift hangover had not quite worn off, because something in her eyes did not quite look stable. She was still crying. "He was my friend. And you killed him. It's _your_ fault. All of this."

Before he could try to explain, Valerie stormed off in a muddled mess of emotion, knowing it was too late to place blame. The fused Dan Phantom had already committed atrocities that Vlad Plasmius never did. The damage was done, and the soul of Danny Fenton was stained red with his own actions.

But the accusations weighed heavily on Vlad's mind as he rubbed his shoulder, then his ever-bruising face. "I know," he called softly after her, pained that he had lost her respect. "I know."

* * *

Early the next morning, they all regrouped in the resistance's main conference room. Valerie remained distant from Vlad, even going as far as not speaking to him. She and Dan appeared fully separate again, their drift hangover having subsided. But Valerie could not bring herself to see Vlad in the same light as she had before the drift.

It didn't help that the old man's wrinkled face bore the evidence of her anger. A dark bruise bloomed down one cheek and along his jaw—something that not even the scruff of his beard could hide.

As Valerie sat down at the long table, she blushed in shame and righteous anger. She did not apologize, and Vlad did not ask for one. He almost seemed to acknowledge that Valerie's mistrust was well-placed. And when Dan materialized into the room, he felt the tension between his human allies. He eyed Vlad's bruised face with a raised brow. "The hell happened to you?"

He turned to Valerie when no one spoke up. The neural bridge had given them a small, heightened awareness of the other, and he immediately read the shame and guilt upon her face.

_You? _

She hesitated, then gave him a hard, curt nod and looked away.

He stared at her and smirked. It was a facial expression close to a genuine smile, tilting his lips a little too easily towards an appreciative laugh.

"Nice shiner," he told Vlad. It probably was the most heartfelt compliment he'd ever given the old man. "It looks even better on you, now that I know where it came from."

Some part of him felt…pleased that Valerie had shown her disapproval of Vlad's actions.

The old man shot him an angry expression, which made Dan only more delighted. "Yes, well," Vlad grumbled, stroking his sore chin, "we can continue wasting time, or we can get down to business, now that we're all here."

Dan smiled sadistically as he flipped a chair backwards and sat, leaning his arms against the back. "And now that we're all good friends, do tell me what the chess master has planned for my life today. A sleepover? A tea party?"

Vlad tried to ignore Dan's jab. "Actually, my intentions are to educate you and Ms. Gray" —the title was pointedly professional and distant—"on the information we have obtained regarding our alien invaders."

The powerful ghost suddenly looked more interested. Whether it was his Danny-side and his interest in space, or his Plasmius-side and his interest in undermining enemies, it was enough to grab his attention. "And what more can you give us?"

"Quite a bit." The old man pushed binders at them both. "I have a few contacts within the Ghost Zone who keep track of old-world history. According to them, this isn't the first time Earth has encountered this breed of alien. These…Kaiju, as our Asian friends call them, are colonizers. They destroy the native life, and then they take possession upon successfully terraforming the world to their liking. The Ghost Writer had a preserved scroll from 500 BC of a Japanese ship captain who saw a light shine from the deep of the ocean, right where we have located the portal today." Vlad rubbed his temples. "The sailor wrote that he saw small creatures with characteristics like those on the monsters we face now. According to him, they swam within the ocean and then disappeared, and the light at the bottom of the ocean died after a few days."

For the first time, Valerie spoke. She leaned forward, eyes narrowing. "You're telling me that some dude centuries ago saw these things? Why the hell didn't something happen then? Why did he say they were small?"

"Analysis of Kaiju remains shows they have a cellular-based structure that requires a certain amount of nitrogen and carbon dioxide in the air to thrive. I suppose that in 500 BC, they sent sentinels—the small creatures the sailor saw—to measure the colonization potential of our world." Vlad waved carelessly. "When their sentinels died, they retracted their plans. But our air reached pollution levels required for their survival a year ago. Hence the… new and more aggressive wave."

"So you mean to tell me that we're not even fighting the enemy?" Dan deadpanned. "We're just fighting their dogs?"

"In chess, the pawns always go first," Vlad nodded. "The monsters rising out of that portal in the Pacific are not the masterminds of this operation. They're little more than clones of each other—creations, designed to be as terrifying and bulldozing as they are. A few scientists in our Research and Development department unraveled their DNA code and the specific behavioral instructions for decimating any object unlike themselves."

"Then how were those things able to replicate my Wail?" Dan demanded. "If they're just wrecking pawns, they shouldn't be that smart or powerful."

"We're fighting an enemy with the _ability to replicate life and direct its objectives_. It's not unbelievable that we are being watched by powerful beings entirely unlike their sentinels." Vlad sighed. "From our analysis on their brain matter, we've deducted that their kind operate on a hive mind, rather like the drift you two share inside the robot. Daniel, I believe the Kaiju leaders were able to access that Category 2's mind when you attacked it months ago. They were probably able to perform some minor analysis before you killed it. And if our enemy is as intelligent as I fear, they were able to replicate your Ghostly Wail with a little manipulation of ectoplasm infused with their monsters."

Valerie was beginning to look ill. "You've gotta be kidding me."

"So they can just…copy us?" Dan spat in disbelief, something uncomfortable twitching his face. "Any power?"

Vlad nodded. "This means that we need to defeat them before they learn all of our tricks, and before they send their next wave of sentinels. You two are our last hope. We must work together if we wish to preserve anything about this world." He nodded to the binders he'd given him. "Those contain further information about the Kaiju and all of the battle tactics we've used against them so far. We will need to create new strategies. And we will need you both to master any fears you have about using the robot and its neural interface."

Both Valerie and Dan immediately grew defensive, and they both said at the same time, "I don't have any fears." Then they blinked and scooted away from each other, suddenly terrified that they still thought alike.

The old man smiled. "In that case, Technus has create some simulation software that you two can connect to for training. Such training is to prevent other…technical errors. I expect you both to log several hours in the neural interface, and to use the simulation as fighting practice."

Their faces tightened at that.

Vlad pressed harder, raising a brow. "I've given you both several hours to recalibrate. A new wave of sentinels could pass through the portal at any time. Will you really waste these next hours out of some childish fear?"

* * *

Technus's training simulation was a monstrosity, in classic tradition of all of his inventions. In a large, empty room, various machines had been hooked up and connected to create a virtual hologram of the command center within the robot's head. The neural connector helmets, however, were very much real, as was the Drift technology.

The instant Dan and Valerie donned the neural connection nodes and virtual reality helmet, Technus's training simulation came to life. "Guardian Omega online." On their visors, holograms pixelated into view with pilot controls, the visual port to see outside the robot, and the various computers and gauges that measured the robot's levels. "All systems functioning at one-hundred percent. Ectoplasmic energy fields aligning to identified ghost core. Awaiting neural bridge upload to system."

In the actual robot, Technus would be the one to initiate their Drift. But here, Dan found the switch on his side of the technology setup. He looked over at Valerie, his face twisted in displeasure. "I still don't understand why I can't just run the damn robot by myself. Then we wouldn't have to mess with this kind of crap."

"Technus designed the robot to work for two people on purpose," she snapped, glaring. "Now just throw the switch."

He sniffed haughtily. "Excuse me if I have reservations against connecting my mind with yours," he sniffed. "I would rather not feel your emotions again."

Her eyebrows flew up. "Excuse me? What was that about emotions? Because I'm pretty sure you revealed how much of a basket case _you_ are."

His lip curled into a snarl. "I am not a basket case. I am in control of myself, always. And at least my memories warrant your tears, as opposed to your cliché and fleeting existence."

Her eye twitched behind her clear visor. "Are you kidding me right now? Are we really gonna get into a sympathy contest? Just freakin' flip the switch." She looked uncomfortable. "The sooner we get this done, then we kick alien ass and never do this again."

Valerie's demanding tone made him think for a moment about slamming her into the wall. But he knew that would achieve them nothing. "Yeah, yeah," he grumbled under his breath.

He squeezed his eyes shut and flipped the switch. And suddenly, the whole world twisted in a nauseating double of sound and sight…and then emotion and thought.

The sharp light that was Valerie's mind connected hard with his, like a battering ram. This time, she had prepared herself for his assault, and Dan grimaced. The feeling of her trying to remain separate nearly bowed him over in pain. "Dammit," he rasped, holding onto his head, "what are you doing? Stop it! can you stop that?"

His command reverberated over the bond.

"Why don't you?" she said, grimacing just as much. In Dan's own desire to remain separate and yet control her, it felt as if she were being torn in two. "You're the one doing this!"

"No, I'm not," he hissed, red eyes glowing orange in irritation. "It's you."

"No it's not!" she complained, gasping.

Their thoughts shifted and raged against each other. Despite the tightness with which they clung to their own consciousness, both felt the threads of fear from the other. They feared the vulnerability of sharing their deepest fears and hidden weaknesses. Their expanded mind could not stand such division.

Despite their attempts, information slipped through. Images of Valerie's old home, then her run-down apartment in Elmerton mingled alongside Dan's flashes of bright lights, then the blur of staring down at a decimated city—

Valerie cried out. "Stop," she cried out, holding onto her head. She'd accidentally accessed the deeper part of his mind, opening herself to the blackest stains of his soul. She was suddenly feeling an intense bloodlust and hatred that was not her own but now was, and her fear skyrocketed to shatter whatever separation existed within the bond.

Dan inhaled shakily as he struggled to push her away, only to feel himself stumbling into the unsettling belief that there was nothing to push away, for he and Valerie were of the same mind. He was Valerie. She was him. Their hatred and bloodlust was one, as was their fear that somehow this was all wrong—

Suddenly, controlling the simulation and the background of gears and pulleys was their least concern. Her memories began to overlay with his, interlocking one by one too fast as they fell deeper into the drift. Their expanded mind twisted on itself, unable to handle the strength of their bond.

One minute had passed.

Valerie's lips pressed together hard as she struggled. Her own heart began to pulse with the hatred Dan held for everything, just as she knew that he'd been infected with her desire to protect everything.

The neural connectors triggered an emergency safety breaker, and the simulation's controls struggled under the weight of their neural bridge. "Warning," said the computer. "Pilot controls receiving inconclusive data. Detecting interference from Random Access Brain Impulse Triggers. Please recalibrate."

Then their visors shut off. And the entire simulation died, which powered down the Drift.

For a time, the two of them stood again in the wasteland of each other, sifting out the invasive consciousness. They both had pulsing headaches from the desperate demand they'd imposed on the other, which was to _split—stay away—infecting me—_

Then Valerie shook her head out of her helmet, disturbed and shaken. "What the hell was that?"

Dan took off his helmet and nearly snarled at it. "Failure, obviously."

"I know that," she snapped. "I mean, what the hell were _you_ trying to do? Freakin' gave me a headache." She looked disgusted and fearful. She felt stained. "You…messed with my brain."

"Likewise." He rubbed his temples, glaring at her. He had not felt such a mundane physical pain for quite a while, and it irritated him almost as much as his alien need to protect humanity. "How the hell are we supposed to control the battle suit like this?"

She set her helmet on the floor and ran a hand through the ringlet waves of her ponytail, stiff with fear and anger. "I don't know. But if we don't get a handle on this, we're not going to survive against an alien race."

Dan noticed her attention had switched from protecting humanity to protect herself. Or was that just his own thoughts temporarily influencing her? Their alpha and beta brain waves were still running along similar patterns, which meant he could feel the smallest hint of Valerie's own desire to forget saving the world if it meant remaining separate from him.

"You can't possibly connect your mind with mine," he agreed. "We're incompatible, and you will surely get us both killed."

She glared at him. "Not, we just have to…do it again. We have to train."

He laughed bitterly. "Train?" he repeated. "How? By pointlessly tormenting each other?"

Despite her reluctance, Valerie remained adamant. "You know I don't want to do this," she admitted. "But dammit, we don't have an option. We haven't even managed to work a simulation of the robot, much less the real thing. We gotta figure this out before it's too late."

He jabbed, snarling, "If I were not tethered to you, I could easily defeat our enemy. Do not mistake me as the weak link."

Valerie's voice hardened. "And Technus said it would take us both. He designed the robot to work with _two people_." She could still feel Dan's pain and hatred, even though now its influence was less and she felt guilt for letting it infect her. She was the one responsible for keeping Dan in line. She could not afford to be corrupted by him.

Dan stared at her. "Well, fuck this," he said, pulling his helmet back on. "I'll control the robot by myself."

Without warning, he flipped the switch again, and Valerie snapped, eyes wide, "No!"

But it was too late. The drift technology was designed to manage the neural load of a skyscraper-sized robot by delineating it between two brains. But this time, only one mind existed, for Valerie's helmet was still lying empty on the floor.

Dan's mind expanded in the silence of thousands of engines, pulleys, and gears, all demanding information from him and space within his brain. The pressure of the neural load of the robot simulation alone dropped his jaw in a gasp. Too much. The demand was too much. He felt skinless and suddenly as if he were exploding from the inside out—

Within seconds, his own power core seized up.

He nearly collapsed within the simulation, his mind scrambling under the strain. "Agh," he gasped, falling back against the metal beams of the machines, eyes rolling up to heaven.

_ No—stop—help—_

His synapses expanded too far and snapped under the pressure, along with several blood vessels under his skin from the stress, his body upheaving against the harness of the drift technology.

He did not even feel Valerie's hands as she ripped him out of the harness and away from the wires. He leaned hard against her, limbless and without energy. Her shaking arms struggled to keep him up, and the next he knew, he was on the floor, Valerie rolling him onto his back.

"Shut down!" she called out to the simulation computer. Her voice sounded distant, almost worried. "Stop it!"

The simulation and drift technology immediately powered down. "Error," said the computer. "Total system failure. Tot—total s-system f-f-failure—"

The voice died, and then the lights of the hologram faded out, and the neural connectors powered down. For a second or two, she kneeled before Dan in simple shock, eyes wide as she watched him seizure. "Come on, Phantom." She slapped his face, none too harshly. "Snap out of it."

He didn't, his limbs shaking minutely. Bright green blood trailed down from his nose and mouth and eyes as he stared sightlessly up at his enemy. His jaw was dropped, strange breaths escaping from him as his chest seized, his glow brightening and darkening.

Valerie panicked. She tapped his face again, a little harder. "Oh my God, don't joke about this. Get up!" She carefully pulled the helmet off of his head and threw it to the side, surprised at the way his white hair flickered dully. "You idiot," she hissed at him to hide her concern. "You don't listen."

For a time, Dan's red eyes simply stared beyond her. Then slowly, his irises moved to focus on her. An alien desperation echoed from him, for he was frozen in a body that would not recalibrate.

The look almost reminded her of a younger Danny, back whenever he'd realized he'd forgotten to study for all of his final exams.

Vlad and Technus barged through the doors of the training room. "An emergency alarm triggered," Vlad breathed, eyes wide as they landed on the half-unconscious Dan on the floor. "What _happened_?"

Valerie backed away from Dan, standing up. "He tried to use it by himself." She shook her head. "The moron."

But as she stared at him, she realized she felt true concern. Her alpha and beta brain waves were no longer connected to him, but some part of her still felt he was a part of her. And he was the remains of Danny.

That complicated things.

Technus complained as he dropped beside Dan, "I told you this technology requires two drivers. What was he thinking?"

"Obviously he wasn't," Valerie said, voice dry. It still wavered with fear and surprise. "I tried to warn him."

Technus ran a device over Phantom, then read the results. "Well, he definitely overloaded," he concluded. "Too much electrical power for his nervous system and synapses in the brain." The old ghost eyed his strange ally, mouth set. "He'll be fine in an hour or so. His power core should quickly diffuse the excess energy."

Dan's eyes closed as sweat raised on his temples. Blood still dripped down his lips and chin. "T-too m-much," he rasped out, unable to collect his thoughts.

Technus backed away uncertainly. "But I'm no doctor, of course. Maybe we should get someone just in case."

* * *

In short order, Vlad and Valerie helped Dan into a sitting position against the wall. Valerie stuffed a towel in his shaking hands. He wiped his face, feeling nauseated and unable to hold himself up. He realized with chagrin that he was leaning hard against Valerie.

She said nothing about it, likely because she was helping him out of some backwards obligation inspired by her knowledge of his true identity.

"Now, children," Vlad said as he paced before them, irritated, "what did we learn today?"

He eyed Dan specifically, whose red eyes were still foggy.

The ghost grimaced as he tried to wipe the blood from his face, his arms shaking. He remained silent, but defeat oozed from every line in his body.

Vlad tapped his foot. "Well?"

A growl rose in Dan's throat, and his face flamed with a green blush. He knew he had made an impulsive mistake. "Shut up," he snarled, voice weak. He didn't want to hear some kind of weird, parental lecture about the merits of obeying orders.

The old man's lips twitched up without humor. "You were told at the beginning of our deal that such technology could not be manned alone. Had Valerie not pulled you from the drift, you might have permanently injured yourself." Vlad's voice was hard. "We cannot afford the loss of your power here, do you understand?"

Dan did not answer. But the world tilted, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

Vlad pressed, "I asked, _do you understand_?"

The young ghost growled, even as he leaned against Valerie's side. "I heard you the first time."

"Good." Then Vlad turned his face, and he began to walk out. "I expect you to try drifting again the instant you're back at one-hundred percent functionality!" And he shut the door behind him, leaving them both on the floor in the silence.

It left a strange chasm, for suddenly Vlad was the enemy, and Dan and Valerie were allies in their frustration.

"…Oh, I _hate_ him," Dan muttered, pulling away the towel from his face. He was still disconcerted to see that his nose was still bleeding, the towel in his hands smeared with glowing green ectoplasm. "Thinks he can just order me around."

"I know, right?" Valerie said, arms crossed. She was stiff against him, for she was not used to such close contact. She supposed she could let go and let him struggle to hold himself up. Perhaps she could laugh at him and mock him for his stupid decision. But then she supposed that wouldn't help their overarching struggle, which was drifting properly.

"At least Vlad looks better with that bruise," Dan said. He turned his foggy, red eyes to Valerie. Something strange was in his gaze, alongside his frustration. It was almost a form of appreciation. "Feel free to punch him again on my behalf anytime."

She looked away. "Yeah, well. He's old. I shouldn't have done that."

Dan sniffed at her sense of shame. "He deserved it." Then he wiped away some of the blood still on his chin, his fingers a bit shaky. "You have no idea how much he deserved it."

"Oh, I think I do."

They fell into an awkward silence at that, for he had not yet recalibrated from his electric overload. They sat side by side, his solid weight leaning against her shoulder and the wall, his spine and limbs flimsy with occasional twitches.

"Look," Valerie said hesitantly, looking away. "You know what happens if you try to use the robot technology alone. We both know what happens when we fight the drift. Neither option ends up with us being able to fight."

She held out her hand, swallowing hard. "We have to work together, so let's make a deal. Whatever I see in your mind, I won't talk about. And whatever you see in mine, you won't talk about. All we have to do is find a way to keep focused on the task at hand, which is fighting."

He seemed in conflict with himself, eyeing her. Ultimately, she was suggesting a private truce between them, which would require them to be vulnerable in order to find an equilibrium. "You would open your mind to me like that? To allow me access without question?"

The woman looked uncomfortable. "The drift doesn't work if we fight each other. So I'll show you mine if you show me yours. And we'll never tell anyone what we see."

His pale lips twitched, despite his still nauseated state of existence. "You do realize that the saying 'I'll show you mine' has a lot of sexual connotations to it, right?"

Her face flamed up, and she said, voice strangled, "You know what I meant." But the reality was that they truly would see everything—every flicking thought and sudden, random impulse. Until they learned to control it, Valerie realized it was quite possible that they'd reveal troublesome thoughts about each other. Such as her still-lingering fondness for one Danny Fenton.

…And when she had been connected to him, had she felt his once-fondness for her? Or had she imagined it?

The tiredness in Dan's eyes melted under a spark of sick amusement. "I suppose I'm game if you are. But don't say I didn't warn you, Valerie." With a grimace, he clasped her hand and shook it. The tendons of his hand still twitched with the electrical diffusion from the neural overload, but she held him strong. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

Then his glow stuttered, and he felt the world tilt again, just as alarms blasted at a high decibel along with blinking, red lights across the ceiling. Both of them flinched in surprise.

An artificial intelligence reported over the main speakers of the resistance, "Movement in the breach. Kaiju signature measured at Category 3. Estimated time of landfall is 2.5 hours."

* * *

**A/N:** _Again, so sorry for the long wait. But hey, at least it was a long chapter, right? _

_I took a lot of liberties here regarding the Kaiju and their history, and I had a lot of fun working with how to write about the drift as it's happening between Valerie and Dan. Let me know if you have any requests or ideas for what should happen next! _

_Please review! _


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